A child has died following a fire in a 20-story high-rise in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. Two other people, a child and a woman, had to be resuscitated after being found unconscious in a hallway. Firefighters evacuated 60 residents as police investigate the cause.
The fire broke out on Wednesday evening around 20:00 in an apartment on the third floor of a 20-story high-rise in the Friedrichsfelde district of the Lichtenberg borough. According to a fire department spokesperson, the apartment contained an unusually large number of furnishings, leading to a rapid spread of the flames. The apartment's resident was able to escape on his own, based on initial findings.
When emergency services arrived, the apartment was fully engulfed in flames, with heavy smoke spreading throughout the building and flames shooting from windows. Each floor of the high-rise has eight apartments. Firefighters, peaking at around 170 personnel, rescued residents, including the three unconscious individuals found in a hallway near the fire apartment: two children and a woman. All three required resuscitation. One child later succumbed to injuries, while the condition of the other child and the woman remained initially unclear.
A total of 60 residents either evacuated on their own or were brought to safety by emergency crews. The exact number of injuries was not immediately known. Police are investigating the cause of the fire, which has since been extinguished. The building is not at risk of collapse. The number of uninhabitable apartments was being assessed overnight; it is expected that at least some residents could return that night.
Initial fire department reports mentioned the fourth floor, later corrected to the third.
